Whether you are gaming or working on the go, having your laptop run out of juice can be both unpleasant and unprofitable. Because keeping it plugged in all the time is not always an option, ensuring your laptop battery remains powered and available for as long as possible can ensure that gaming or work data is not lost or rushed due to a shutdown.
That said, ensuring your battery lasts a long time can be difficult because gaming and production laptops are energy vortexes that will suck down all the energy you care to deliver. As a solution for any laptop, you need to consider what types of things actually use the battery and understand how to limit them.
1. Screen
Your screen is one of the most important aspects of your laptop, and it devours a lot of energy. When you are on the go, you can get twice as much power from your battery if you turn the brightness down by 50 percent.
Depending on your work environment, you can decrease the brightness even more.
2. Background programs
Background programs can drain energy, so it is important that you go into your operating system and restrict programs from being able to run in the background.
Such programs that run in the background can include Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or a variety of other programs that deal with your graphics card. Other programs include the following:
- music programs
- message apps
- maps
- office software
- games
- Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth
Note: if you have Wi-Fi or Bluetooth capability, any speakers or printers that you use will cause these programs to run in the foreground. In doing so, your laptop will use up more electricity. If possible, you should save printing and other types of tasks until your laptop is plugged in.
3. Start programs
Many programs come pre-installed on your laptop. Additionally, operating systems often update automatically. During the update process, you might be surprised to discover that they install programs that automatically launch when you boot your computer.
To see which programs are starting automatically, you can enter the task manager in Windows and click the “start” tab. This tab will list all the programs that launch at boot, and all you have to do is right click a program and disable it.
4. Your battery
Not all batteries are equal, and if you have tried all the tricks in the book but are still running low on electricity in crucial moments, you should consider upgrading to an ultra green battery. As you probably guessed, this type of battery is environmentally safe as it does not contain mercury.
More important, these batteries recharge as fast as or faster than traditional batteries. Finally, replacement batteries are available as OEM, which means the battery comes from the manufacturer.
However, it is important that you buy an ultra green battery from a retailer such as Ultra Green Battery as they specialize in laptop batteries and also manufacture the batteries. Consequently, they can help point you to the battery that is best for your laptop.
5. Accessories
Accessories that can drain your laptop include external hard drives, speakers, and keyboards. Although you cannot necessarily disable your keyboard, you can turn off the lights.
To turn off a backlit keyboard, you will need to find your user’s manual and determine which function key turns it off. Conversely, you can simply test the function keys one by one until the lights turn off.
6. Battery saver
This option is probably the most obvious, but if you are like many people, you have probably turned it off in order to enjoy the brightest screen possible.
However, when you are on the go, you should turn it on as it will automatically dim your screen and save you energy.
7. Unplug your battery
Your battery works better if it has the opportunity to charge, so you should actually use your laptop on occasion when it is not plugged in. Additionally, to make your battery last longer, you should re-charge it before it is completely discharged.
Allowing your battery to completely discharge requires a longer time for it to charge back up, and if you need to use it in an emergency, you might not have full power.
Moreover, if you continually use the battery until it’s nearly dead, the battery will eventually not hold a charge as long as it normally would.
